April 14, 2007 - Northern Ireland football boss Howard Wells today welcomed a major breakthrough in the treatment of diabetes, which he said would go a long way to helping sufferers and raising awareness.

The Irish Football Association chief executive, who suffers from the condition, said he was pleased to hear the results of a recent study which showed for the first time that insulin-dependent diabetics can be freed from the needle by treating them with their own stem cells, as per belfasttelegraph.

The results of the small trial, which involved 15 newly diagnosed young patients with Type 1 diabetes, could mark the start of a revolution in tackling the auto-immune disease.

Researchers gave the patients powerful drugs to suppress their immune systems, followed by transfusions of stem cells drawn from their own blood.

All Type 1 diabetics have to self-administer insulin to control their blood sugar levels. But after treatment, 14 of the trial patients lost their insulin dependence and were able to put away their injection pens.

According to recent statistics, 55,000 people in Northern Ireland suffer from diabetes. That figure marks a rise of 3,000 on the year before, raising fears that diabetes is approaching epidemic proportions.

Mr Wells was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, which is generally controlled by pills or diet rather than insulin injections, over four years ago. He had suffered no symptoms and described the diagnosis during a routine check-up as a "wake-up call".

Welcoming the results of the research, the IFA chief said: "Diabetes has been deemed to be an incurable disease so any research that goes some way (toward) arresting the problem has got to be good news.

"Diabetes is an affliction that a lot of people still know very little about. It's also an insidious disease that can be in your system for a long time before you know.

"A development like this is, of course, a welcome relief to sufferers if it will eventually make life easier for them - and it's also a chance to raise awareness, which is very important."

According to the study, over a follow-up period of between seven months and three years, one patient did not need insulin injections for 35 months, four for at least 21 months, and seven for at least six months.

Two patients who responded late did not have to inject themselves for one and five months respectively.

The findings, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Jama), are said to provide the first clinical evidence that Type 1 diabetics can benefit from stem cell therapy.

The US and Brazilian scientists, led by Dr Julio Voltarelli, from the University of Sao Paulo, wrote: "Very encouraging results were obtained in a small number of patients with early-onset disease."